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Gene Roddenberry quotes

"It speaks to some basic human needs, that there is a tomorrow – it's not all going to be over in a big flash and a bomb, that the human race is improving, that we have things to be proud of as humans. No, ancient astronauts did not build the pyramids – human beings built them because they're clever and they work hard. And Star Trek is about those things."

"I believe in humanity. We are an incredible species. We're still just a child creature, we're still being nasty to each other. And all children go through those phases. We're growing up, we're moving into adolescence now. When we grow up – man, we're going to be something!"

"I had insisted on half women on board [the Enterprise]. The network came to me and said, 'You can't have half women. Our people say it will make it look like a ship with all sorts of mad sexual things going on – half men and half women.' So we argued about it like a poker game and they finally said, 'Okay. We'll settle for one-third women.' I figured one-third women could take care of the males anyway."

"If man is to survive, he will have learned to take a delight in the essential differences between men and between cultures. He will learn that differences in ideas and attitudes are a delight, part of life's exciting variety, not something to fear."

"When they say on a show 'Created by' anyone, like 'Created by Gene Roddenberry,' that is not true. I laid out a pathway, and then the only thing I will take credit for is, I surrounded myself by very bright people who came up with all those wonderful things. And then you can appear very smart."

"That's been a question, one of the big questions in my life. 'What is a human?' What are the elements that make a human?' It's a search for... how many elements do you get before you say, 'Yes, it's human,' where before you were saying it's not human."

"Almost all of this comes out of my feeling that the human future is bright. We're just beginning. We have wonders ahead of us. I don't see how it can be any other way, with the way the future is going. We now have got a telescope up there. We're photographing the universe. We're inventing the next life form, which is the computer. We're in the midst of it. And it will happen."

"Bill [Shatner] was very upset when Leonard came on particularly strong at the beginning [of the series] because he said, 'Am I not the Captain? How come [the writers] don't appreciate that?' It was a very natural reaction. I said to Shatner, 'If we had an Eskimo as a second character, you could be sure the Eskimo would get the most delightful lines because of what he is.' I advised him not to worry about Spock because all that reflected on Shatner. Particularly if Shatner continued to treat Spock properly in the show. I suggested they should show each other a lot of friendship in the show and it would eventually right itself. And, indeed, it did eventually right itself."

"I have nothing but admiration for this silly race of ours. Even with the Hitlers in it and so on. Sometimes it goes into ugliness, but, in all though, it is a beauty. It's like a rose, which also has thorns. We're something."

"I'm not the same man I was when I created the original Star Trek. I did the best I could with that, but almost 25 years have gone by. I had the experience of seeing many science fiction shows fail. It made me even more sure that we should do a quality show."

"We always figured there would be some families aboard [the Enterprise]. But now we figured we're leaning more heavily on the families. And the reason is these galaxy class ships go out for a longer time. From the way we designed our ship for the new [Next Generation] series, they were to be out longer. And if you want people to join Starfleet, you want to take families, to have a healthy family life. I think it's a better show now because we deal with that."

"I wouldn't want to do a third generation of Star Trek. I'm Star Trekked out. It has satisfied many of my needs. It satisfied my needs for respecting myself... and it gives me a good feeling that it's a body of work in my life that is worth considering."

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